CHAPTER NINETEEN
Damien was pacing so fast it looked like he might wear a hole into the marble floor.
"I'm cooked… I'm so cooked," he muttered, chewing at his nails.
Klaus lounged calmly on a blood-red chair, one leg crossed over the other as he poured himself another glass of whiskey.
"Calm down."
Damien spun on him.
"Calm down? Klaus, if your brother finds out I was the one who told you about Luna, he'll put my head on a spike!"
Klaus didn't even look worried. His voice stayed smooth.
"Elijah won't find out. I used my Domain to bury my aura completely. Even if he searches that place himself, nothing will trace back to you. Besides—" he lifted the glass, "—you came to me. Not the other way around."
Damien's anger flared.
"Yeah, I came to you—but I didn't tell you to kill her! How the hell are we supposed to get the token back?"
Klaus took a slow sip.
"She wasn't carrying it."
Damien blinked.
"Wait… what?"
"She wasn't with it," Klaus repeated. "If she had the token, she would've given it to me the moment I was about to kill her father."
"Then WHY kill her?" Damien exploded. "If you'd brought her here, we could've interrogated—"
Klaus sighed and set his glass down with a soft clink.
"She wasn't going to talk. Not after I killed her father, besides not after what I saw in her eyes."
He paused—just one heartbeat, but enough for his expression to shadow.
Damien frowned. "What happened? What about her eyes?"
Klaus' jaw ticked.
"Nothing."
But something had happened—something he didn't want to admit. Every time he remembered Luna's eyes, that cold shiver crawled up his spine again.
Fear.
A word too insulting for someone like him.
How could an Archduke fear a Beta wolf? Impossible.
He straightened.
"Besides, Luna had a younger brother. What was his name again?"
"Tom," Damien supplied.
"Right." Klaus rested his elbow on the chair. "Find him. If anyone has the token, it'll be him."
Damien groaned.
"I doubt it. And Klaus—shouldn't we slow down? The clan elders are already getting suspicious. Luna and her family disappearing from meetings suddenly? Is beginning to tip them off .If communication outside the forest wasn't forbidden, they would've known the truth and confronted us by now. I can't be searching for a boy while cleaning the mess your idiotic brother pushed me to make—"
He didn't finish.
Because Klaus tapped his foot.
Just one small tap.
The ground exploded with red aura.
Damien was instantly forced to his knees, choking, his bones rattling as the pressure crushed him.
Klaus lifted his head slowly. Veins bulged across his temple, his skin turning icy blue. The red chair beneath him froze solid, frost crackling outward like spiderwebs. With a flick of his hand, Damien flew backward, slamming into the wall so hard it broke. Wooden shards shot into the air—then hung there as Klaus directed them with invisible force.
One gesture.
The shards launched straight into Damien's stomach.
He choked on a mouthful of blood, eyes wide, body pinned to the wall like an insect.
Klaus walked toward him, calm as a god strolling through a battlefield.
He tapped Damien's cheek lightly.
" My family and I might have some issues… but if you ever insult my family again," he whispered, voice cold enough to freeze bone, "I will show you why they call me the Mad God."
His skin slowly returned to its human color. With no effort at all, Klaus yanked the stake from Damien's stomach. Damien collapsed, groaning, blood spreading across the floor.
Guards rushed in— immediately they saw Klaus they froze. They didn't dare take one step closer.
Klaus didn't even glance at them.
"Get me the boy," he said.
Then he vanished.
A second later, both guards' heads thudded to the ground.
Klaus's voice echoed through the air, low and amused.
"I'll take this as your apology."
A cold, mirthless laugh followed—one that made Damien's blood freeze.
Damien trembled, holding his bleeding stomach.
What was I thinking… bringing this monster into the plan?
---
Back at Luna's Home
The rain was heavy that night, pounding against the rooftops and muddying the earth.
Doors creaked open.
Neighbors stepped outside—then froze.
Luna's body lay in the middle of the yard, soaked in rainwater and blood. Her white skin had turned ghost-pale, her dress torn, her hair plastered to her cheeks.
Her father's headless corpse knelt beside her—like a man still begging for mercy even after death.
Screams tore through the night. Women stumbled backward, hands covering their mouths. Men rushed forward only to stop, shielding their wives' eyes from the horror.
Within minutes, the police arrived and sealed off the scene. The verdict was quick:
Luna was dead.
Her father was dead.
Their bodies were taken to the morgue.
Rain washed the blood away—but not the terror.
---
Days Later — The Morgue
The room was silent.
Too silent.
Luna lay on the metal slab, untouched for days. Her skin was still pale… but then—
A subtle shift.
Her color began to return, from ghost-white to a faint human shade. Her fingers twitched. Darkness seeped through her open eyes, swallowing the original hue until only two bottomless black voids stared into the ceiling.
The air froze.
Every shadow in the room bent toward her—
As if bowing.
And then—
Luna inhaled.
Slow. Sharp. Wrong.
Her lips parted.
But no breath escaped.
Just silence.
A silence so deep it felt like the room itself was holding its breath.
Because the moment Luna opened her eyes…
Death opened its own.